Cutting Out (Like a paper doll)

I don't know the correct terminology; but here is my project: I have a picture that I want to "cut and lift" an object out of. I want it to be like a "paperdoll cutout" (nothing behind it. . .totally "clear". Then I can put it on something else without having any background shadow, shade or color. Can you guide me? Thanks, Catherine

What you want to do, I think, is select the object from your image and move it to a new background, right?

Some of the people who do this more often might have found shortcuts, but this is how I do it:

Choose one of the Lasso tools from the toolbar. I happen to prefer using the 'plain' one. Guide it around the outside of the object you want to remove, which can be a little tricky until you've had some practice. I usually can't get a perfect selection, so I get as close as I can and then erase any extra pixels after I move it to a new canvas. When you need to change the position of your hand, mouse, or image, hold down on the spacebar and then you can pick up where you left off.

Once you have your selection made, you can either do a Copy/Paste to the new background or you can do a drag and drop. Drag and drop will use fewer system resources, if that's a concern with your equipment.

You might find the selection is a bit harsh after it's moved to the new background. In that case, you can choose some light feathering in the Option Bar after choosing the Lasso tool. The downside is that if you need to erase any excess you lose the feathering in that area, too.

This does take some practice, but it should give you the effect you want.

Catherine,

I use the following method for cutting out images:

-use lasso tool to get a rough outline of the image you want to cut ( stay inside the image)
-switch to selection brush (right below lasso tool)
-for Mode, select Mask
-select an overlay color & overlay opacity that allows you to clearly see your image below the color mask
-zoom your picture to 200 or 300% and use the selection brush to paint over the areas you missed with the lasso tool (everything below the mask color is being selected). Decrease the brush size for small areas. If you slip outside of the desired area, hold down the option key (mac - I don't know the Windows equivalent) and use the brush to erase that part of the mask.
-when you have it all selected, go back to lasso tool - you will now see your image outlined with the "marching ants"
-select Layer, New, Layer via Copy and voila, you have your image isolated from the background. Hope that helps.

Cheers
Cliff

Confused on resolution. I have a picture (4x6). I cropped a portion to capture what I wanted. I want to size it to print out on 4x6. How can I maintain the tight resolution without making it grainy when printed? I am using glossy paper, the "best" photo quality etc. Any ideas? Thanks, Catherine

Catherine, this question always sounds simpler to answer than it is, because the subject of resolution can be hard to grasp for many people, especially when the discussion starts hitting on resampling. Here's a link to a very good site that will give you some basic information on image resolution. The link should open to a page where a lot of topics are listed; look down the list until you find the part about image resolution.

<http://www.arraich.com/elements/pse_hhow1.htm>

I'm not really intending to hang you out to dry with just a link, though. Read through the information on Jay's site and then post back with specifics about the picture you're working with. If we have something concrete to deal with, the discussion will be a little less confusing.

Put the original up on your monitor and then go to Image>Resize>Image Size and post the dimensions of the image and the current resolution. Also give us some idea of how much of the original picture you want to crop out and enlarge, like one half of it, a third, a quarter, etc. That will have a significant impact on the resolution, and it's the resolution that's much more critical to the quality of the print than the printer settings.